The current proposal is aimed at the discovery of bacterial proteins that interact with apoptotic machinery of human body and at the demonstration of the potential of these proteins as therapeutic agents. A major goal of Phase I is to generate a pipeline of such bacterial proteins and to show its capability by producing a candidate with desirable properties. Phase I of the proposal includes shotgun cloning of such protein from organisms where anti-apoptotic activity has been demonstrated as well as an alternative route based on our bioinformatics capabilities. Testing more bacterial inhabitants of the human body for the presence of anti-apoptotic factors, another component of Phase I of the project, will generate a source of additional proteins to be studied in Phase II. The overall project will also include a characterization of potential therapeutic properties of the proteins coded by the cloned genes and their modification as a part of the drug development effort of the company. The systematic study of relationships between microbes and cellular processes of the human organism may lead to the discovery of a new broad class of therapeutic agents "borrowed" from nature, aptly named "antibiotics of the 21st century." [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]